Making a worm farm

What better to do on a rainy day than go on a worm hunt? My girls are loving these slimy little creatures lately so we found a way that we could keep a few as "pets" for a while. To make your own worm farm you need just a few basic things:

an empty 2 liter bottle (or something similar in size)

small rocks

sand

dirt

worms

black construction paper

Start by cutting off the top of your bottle (of course, this is a parent's job). I added some tape around the rim of the bottle so there were no sharp edges. I used a hole punch to make some air holes in the top piece, and I also left the cap off the top in the end. It would also be a good idea to make some holes for drainage in the bottom of the bottle (a step I didn't do this time, but will do next time since all the water seems to rise to the top and make a puddle that just sits).

The girls took turns adding the rocks to the bottom for drainage, then about a 2 inch layer of sand, and finally 2 inch layer of soil (just from our garden). We repeated with another layer of sand and dirt until we were pretty close to the top of the cut bottle.

Don't forget to put in some worms with those layers of dirt. We just used the ones that were wiggling around under our soil. We also added some small pieces of banana peel in the middle to decompose and give food to the worms.

This is how the final product looked after taping the top of the bottle back onto the base, although I decided to remove the bottle cap to allow for more air flow. Then I took some black construction paper and wrapped it around the bottle. Daylight is not a worm's friend, so the dark paper helps to simulate their natural habitat.

After a couple of days we were able to remove the black paper and see what the worms had been up to. We could see several of them making their way through their new home. The girls love their new little pets. We just make sure that the soil stays nice and moist and give them extra fruit peels every few days.

My kids we always have a frog farm and worm farm! We find frogs then we go pick up a piece of firewood and find bugs then put them in a bucket and then we feed oour frogs! The kids love it and its not to messy! I love spending time with my kids doing outdoor activities and the kids love having mommy and daddy doing it!

This is so great. I posted a while back about the top 3 organic toys. Dirt was number one because my kids love playing with it and the worms that live in it. It would be fun to let them have one as a pet. I can't wait to make this. Thanks for the post!

How fun!! My mother has a worm box which my daughter sometimes helps her feed the worms. Then my parents use their compost for their gardens. Love the idea of a smaller one. Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!! I hope you are having a fabulous week!

Doris, since the worms normally like it dark I would put the black paper on so the worms can wiggle around in the dirt like they normally would. Otherwise, the worms would seek the dark center of the container and you wouldn't be able to see them next time you wanted to observe.

We have done this in our library and put a smaller bottle in the center of 2 liter one with the filler around it, this made it so the worms couldn't hide in the center and the kids could see the tunnels.

We just recently made one of these in our classroom for our Science Center. It makes a great springboard to talk about small living things that we share our planet with! We are going to do a whole theme on worms ... putting them in the Science Center, looking at them, drawing them, painting them, discussing how to care for them, where we find them, etc.

Thanks for posting this, I have been promising to make a worm house for ages, and tonight they insisted I actually did it, this link was great we had most of the stuff already, and just improvised with the surround by wrapping plastic black packaging a parcel had arrived in. Kids loved it, very simple, and I am hoping it will be successful! :-) x

I love this idea, I'm going to do it for our science center in my preK class. Could I make farms "to go" with smaller water bottles? I would like the children to be able to take one home...not sure the parents would appreciate a larger 2 liter bottle but maybe the smaller bottle would be more accepted :-) LOL.